* Today there are community actions happening at MLA offices across BC. People are participating in the Defend Our Coast Campaign, and are showing up across the province to link arms and symbolize BC’s unbroken wall of opposition to tar sands pipelines and tankers. For more information, go to DefendOurCoast.ca

In-house lobbyists with Enbridge, the Calgary-based energy company behind the controversial Northern Gateway Pipeline, lobbied 23 MPs, three deputy ministers, one chief of staff and other designated public office holders this fall, communication reports filed with the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying show.

Registrations filed with the commissioner’s office have Patrick Daniel, Enbridge’s president and CEO, listed as the responsible officer for the firm’s in-house lobbying. D’Arcy Levesque, the vice president of public and government affairs, and Sonya Savage, the senior manager of government relations, are identified as the two company officials whose lobbying activities represent 20 per cent or more of their duties.

A communication report does not specify which officials did the lobbying, or if the communication was face-to-face or by telephone.

The registration says Enbridge officials were to lobby on “bills (such as C-606 “An Act to amend the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 (Prohibition against the transportation of oil by tankers on Canada’s Pacific North Coast) – measure or area of interest is the proposed ban on oil tanker traffic.”

It also noted there could be “discussions regarding the development of a national energy strategy and the approach to opening new markets for natural resources” and that the company would be “seeking improved efficiencies in the environmental assessment processes.”

One communication shows Enbridge lobbied 22 MPs, all of them Conservative, at once. Another communication shows Enbridge’s in-house lobbyists lobbied Louis Levesque, deputy minister of international trade at Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. Michael Wernick, deputy minister at Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and Michael Horgan, a deputy minister at the finance ministry, were also lobbied, according to two separate communications.

Pressure mounts in the Media, as Canadian Petroleum Producers bombard us with propaganda to forcefeed the Northern Gateway Pipeline and it’s associated Tanker traffic in the most dangerous and pristine water ways in the world. Across Canada, you are being told by the Press that the majority of British Columbians support a . . . . . → Read More: Canada’s Energy Future